Wet Wet Wet star Marti Pellow has been sober for over 25 years

Marti Pellow has been open about his battle with addicton that almost cost him his career and sanity.

The heartthrob of ’90s band Wet Wet Wet officially left the band in 2017 after a successful solo career which also has also seen him tread the boards as an actor in musical theatre productions in both the West End and on Broadway.

But Marti, 59, whose real name is Mark McLachlan, has admitted he will never ‘beat’ his addictions to alcohol and heroin despite being sober for over 25 years.

He started drinking at age 11, telling the Guardian that he enjoyed the “light” feeling it gave him.

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He told the publication: “When success happened to me, there wasn’t a day that went by when I didn’t have a drink.

“I’d be topping up all the time. I could fall asleep on a plane before it took off and wake up to the sound of 100 miniature bottles of vodka clicking together.”

He later turned to heroin. Speaking in 2000, he said: ”About that time (1997) I started losing my sanity messing about with heroin.

“When I first started using it was, where have you been all my life? Within a week it was everything to me – that’s how powerful the drug was.”

Reflecting on his addiction in 2021, he stated: “You can say 23 years sober, but really the person who has the longest clean time is whoever gets up earliest in the morning.

“If you get up at 7am and I get up at 7.30, you’ve got the longest clean time, because it is about the day.

“Do I think I’ll ever beat it? No, I will always acknowledge it. Every day is a school day with addiction.”

Wet Wet Wet reformed in 2004 but never quite recaptured their earlier magic, with Marti observing: “There’s uncharted ground at the beginning, a sense of wonder. I think we were always looking for that, but it never came back.”

In 2017, the star made the decision to leave Wet Wet Wet for good to concentrate on his solo career.

Liberty X singer Kevin Simm took over as frontman.

As well as his battles with addiction, Marti Pellow has faced significant personal losses over the years, including the death of his brother in 2000 due to alcoholism, which left him “shattered”.

He previously said: “I had a brother. I lost him to … I lost him, aye. He died in 2000.

“He had his own demons. He had a problem with drink. There for the grace of God.”

He also endured the loss of his father to cancer in 2014, following his mother’s passing in 2003.

Marti currently resides with his partner of over two decades, Eileen Catterson, in a quaint cottage in Windsor.

She is a former beauty queen, having won Miss Scotland, and worked as a professional model for many years.

He previously opened up about how important she was to him getting clean.

He said: “She was a great support. Great support. There is no way I can articulate how important Eileen was.

“Whatever was said to get the man back that she fell in love with was paramount.

“It’s so important for any addict to have strong people who are not afraid to say: ‘I will walk away from this. But I know what’s in there and I will fight hammer and tongs to get that individual back.’”